GKN chief slams Melrose and vows to ‘invest for the grandchildren’

Engineer GKN on Tuesday said it would “invest for your grandchildren” as it sharpened criticism of takeover suitor Melrose in evidence to MPs.

Finance chief Jos Sclater said Melrose’s five-year investment timescale was “completely incompatible” with GKN’s decades-long work on making parts for Airbus’s A350 and Rolls-Royce Trent engines.

“It’s short-term capitalism versus long-term capitalism. You are investing for your grandchildren, that’s what we’ve been doing and that’s what we want to carry on doing,” he said.

Sclater and GKN chief executive Anne Stevens were giving evidence to the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee, chaired by Rachel Reeves MP, which is probing Melrose’s bid.

The duo also hit back at criticism they had copied Melrose’s plan to shake-up business, saying their proposals were in the works before the Melrose approach.

“I can show you a picture of my white board on January 6 which has the entire strategy that we subsequently launched in my handwriting,” Sclater said.

Melrose chief Simon Peckham disputed this and said he’d first contacted GKN on January 5.

He said Melrose was a “developer” of businesses.

The top team from Melrose, Christopher “Jock” Miller and David “The Grinder” Roper, were also grilled over pension concerns.